Today I was listening to Minnesota Public Radio, as normal, when a show came on about Russian adoptions. I knew immediately I was going to be frustrated. But I listened to part of the show anyway.
The two guests were a doctor who founded the International Adoption Clinic at the University of Minnesota and an adoptive parent who adopted three children from Russia.
Anyone notice the problem?
It amazes me that people do segments and even hour long shows on adoption and do not include adoptees.
We heard a lot about the parents' struggles and some of the ways that early childhood trauma can affect children, but no adoptee appeared to give a first-hand account of his or her experiences.
Thirty-five minutes into the show, Kerri Miller, the host, finally read a comment from an online listener that an adoptee should really be included. I had sent in a similar remark as well. Thirty-five minutes in, and it finally dawns on her that maybe adoptees should be part of the conversation. And even then it takes a listener to point it out to her.
It's not as though adoptees aren't speaking out. There are so many blogs run by adoptees. Activists working on adoptee rights. And still, otherwise competent journalists do not think to consult us about adoption.
Sometimes it feels like screaming silence to an empty room.
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Two adult adoptees talking about their experiences with adoption and searching for their first families.
Adoption Resources
Books on Adoption (that we've read and recommend)
- Being Adopted: The Lifelong Search for Self by Brodzinsky, Schecter, and Henig
- Birthright by Jean A. S. Strauss
- Journey of the Adopted Self by Betty Jean Lifton
- The Primal Wound by Nancy Verrier
- The Adoption Mystique by Joanne Wolf Small
3 comments:
Yes it just goes to show how second rate we still are considered.We just have to keep shouting and speaking up as we haven't before so it will take time and patience, as it has for other civil rights issues.
Our values as possessions end when we turn 18.
We're not suppossed to have voices, we're suppossed to shut up and be grateful we weren't aborted.
Your voices are growing despite such resistance. The lack of imagination - not including adult adoptees - will change, has to change. It turns so many ideas and positions upside down, but it has to happen.
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